Adapted by Green Day lyricist Billie Joe Armstrong and director Michael Mayer (“Spring Awakening,” etc.) from the 2004 Grammy-winning album of the same name, “American Idiot” – the musical – is packed with explosive angst and it rocks hard from start to finish.
We follow three buddies, circa 2004, as they move from disaffected youths to, well, disinfected youths (society as a scrubbing agent). Escaping suburbia, however, isn’t so easy. Johnny (Van Hughes) and Tunny (Scott J. Campbell) bus it into the Big City, but Will (Jake Epstein) never gallops out of the starting gate. He’s impregnated his girlfriend, Heather (Leslie McDonel), and spends the rest of the musical sulking and doing bong hits.
Seduced by the glossy glamour of an army recruiter (Jarran Muse), tattooed Tunny signs up to fight in Iraq. Now on his own and still rudderless, Johnny falls into the hands of St. Jimmy (Joshua Kobak), Mephistopheles and The Joker rolled into one, who supplies him with dope. Despite the never-clearing drug-induced haze, Johnny connects with Whatsername (Gabrielle McClinton), who temporarily serves as his heaven on earth. And McClinton, by the way, is the most dynamic performer onstage.
Propelled forward by its music, spruced up nicely here and there without detracting from its raw energy by Tom Kitt, the show also benefits from the coordinated contributions of choreographer Steven Hoggett, scenic designer Christine Jones, video and projection designer Darrel Maloney, lighting designer Kevin Adams, sound designer Brian Ronan, and costume designer Andrea Lauer.
Together, with an onstage band led by Jarrel Stein, they provide the visual and aural and perhaps visceral elements that capture our attention and, in some cases, hold us enthralled until the finale.
Unfortunately, for those willing to look it squarely in the eye, “American Idiot” deals us three losers who blow off a lot of steam, sow their wild oats, and then end up back on square one, somewhat sheepish and arguably no better for the wear and tear. In fact, if we remove the veneer of pumped-up angst, our three buds (in their roles, not as performers) are rather bland and trite. Now, if one of them had tried to assassinate Dick Cheney or attempted to burn down a courthouse with Gloria Allred napping inside of it, then we’d have something to root for, as far as a story, I mean. But these characters – “characters” in a pejorative sense, perhaps – could be from any Jingletown, USA, disillusioned and disoriented as we’ve all been by media hype, media whitewash, and media overload.
Intentional or otherwise, it’s the women who have something called a backbone. Heather eventually walks out on Will, with a powerful send-off; Whatsername gathers up supernatural forces after Johnny tactlessly spurns her; and Tunny’s life-in-shambles is stitched back together again by the ministrations of The Extraordinary Girl (athletic Nicci Claspell).
“American Idiot” is an enjoyable show but one that’s hard to care about. If the story had been developed – it lacks true passion and it lacks humor and wit – it might have transcended the sand trap it’s fallen into and equaled “Spring Awakening,” “Tommy,” “Rent,” or “Jersey Boys” (and until I saw it I’d never have imagined I’d be praising a musical about, God forbid, The Four Seasons). In many ways, even “Bring it On!” (the recent musical about competitive cheerleading) is more compelling, more varied and more clever, than “American Idiot.”
In the end, all is reconciled, and the encore – the entire cast with acoustic guitars stepping forward to sing “Time of Your Life” – bears this out. So much for the revolution, folks. What we’re left with is the music, the drug of choice when all is said and done, and there are some fine songs here. But is it enough?
American Idiot is onstage at the Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown Los Angeles in the Music Center. Performances, Tuesday through Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m., plus Sunday at 1 and 6:30 p.m. Also, Thursday, April 5 and 19, at 2 p.m. No 1 p.m. performance on Sunday, April 8. Closes with the matinee on Sunday, April 22. Tickets, $20 to $120. Call (213) 972-4400 or go to CenterTheatreGroup.org.
